This invention relates generally to bar soaps and more particularly, to a transparent bar skin cleanser bearing an internal, printed logo that can be offered as decorative soap, an advertising premium, or a novelty.
Bar soaps are well known to the art. Traditional soaps are salts of fatty acids prepared mainly by reacting fats with caustic alkali through a process known as saponification. The treatment of fat with alkali to make traditional soap has been practiced for at least 5000 years.
Conventional toilet bar soaps use higher quality fats and the water content is reduced. Warm molten soap, including perfumes and other additives, is made into flakes and then milled. The milled flakes pass to a plodding machine which works the flakes and compacts the worked soap into bar form. The bars then are cut and stamped to their final shape.
Other modified soaps can be formed into a bar shape and commonly referred to as "soap" by consumers, even though they are not formed totally from fat and alkali through the traditional saponification process. One such common product is Neutrogena.RTM. Soap (Neutrogena Corp.), which is a transparent, nondetergent modified bar soap including triethanolamine, stearic acid, tallow, glycerin, coconut oil, castor oil, sodium hydroxide, oleic acid and cocamide DEA. Another is Basis.TM. Glycerin Soap (Beiersdorf), which is a transparent modified bar soap including tallow, coconut oil and glycerin. These products generally are indicated for people with sensitive, dry or irritated skin who may not tolerate common soap products.
Besides functioning primarily as cleansers, bar soaps, both conventional and modified, generally are provided in aesthetically pleasing forms. The products include perfumes and fragrances and usually are provided in attractive packaging. Often, the bar soaps are impressed with designs so as to render them decorative or aesthetically pleasing. Moreover, the soap bars often serve as advertising vehicles for their manufacturers. The manufacturer's name and trademarks generally are printed directly on the wrap and packaging. Furthermore, the manufacturer includes the trademark or company name on the soap bar itself. That is, most commonly, the name of the soap or company is molded or stamped into the bar of soap. This molding or stamping of the company or product name into the product serves as a source of company and product advertising at least until use of the soap bar under normal bathing or washing conditions wears the company and product name from the soap bar.
Further, the desire to have a company name or product name affixed to a soap bar is not limited to the manufacturer of the soap. For example, large hotel and motel chains provide complimentary soap in their rooms, the soap having the name or the hotel chain stamped or molded into the surface of the bar soap. Other concerns, such as trendy restaurants, gambling casinos and amusement parks have been known to offer such decorated or labeled bar soap for sale in gift shops as premium souvenirs. Thus, there is an incentive to provide a high quality, resilient printed or decorated bar soap with a relatively long-lasting design.
Prior art patents have addressed the desire to decorate, emboss or label soap. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 165,628, to Strunz, provides for transparent soap having a business card or other advertising medium to form a business card made of soap; U.S. Pat. No. 648,247, to Dunne, provides a soap cake having a center core made of insoluble material in two hollow sections that can be placed together to form a container or holder for advertising or other matter; U.S. Pat. No. 1,441,315, to Walbridge, provides a cake of soap having cavo-convex halves with an inscription inside; U.S. Pat. No. 1,764,009. to Embree, shows a soap bar with an inserted card for advertisement and to add reinforcement to the bar; U.S. Pat. No. 1,827,549, to Villain, discloses a transparent soap having cardboard, metal or paper piece at the middle; U.S. Pat. No. 2,051,625 provides an advertising soap; U.S. Pat. No. 3,149,188, to Schmitt, shows imprinted soap; U.S. Pat. No. 3,413,230, to Dupuis, shows a floating soap cake with included educational features; U.S. Pat. No. 3,432,325, to Haba, discloses a process for printing on soap; U.S. Pat. No. 3,432,325, to Baba, provides a process for printing on soap; U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,482, to Goerig et al., discloses a method of embossing an indicia on soap with an elastomeric coated printing head. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,228, to Kamada et al., teaches a soap with a decorated surface and a method for decorating the soap; U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,433, to Inui et al, provides a process for making a soap bar containing dried soap figures; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,472,545, to Maiki, provides a method for affixing labels to soap bars.
Other prior art patents simply teach the use of some reinforcing or buoyant inserts not particularly adapted to use as an advertising medium. Representative patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,707,334; 3,773,672; 4,438,010; Canadian Patent No. 835913; and British Patent No. 881,767.
The conventional methods for labeling bars of soap all suffer from several drawbacks. First, conventional stamping, embossing or molding results in a superficial decoration formed in the soap which quickly deteriorates or wastes as the soap is used. Moreover, this type of decoration is limited. The design or lettering either is cut or stamped into the soap or consists of raised soap material. Thus, the design necessarily is of the same color and texture as the soap. This type of embossing or etching does not allow for the use of varied, unique, colored or stylized print or design. Presently, with the value of recognizable trademarks and logos advertisers seek a high quality representation of their trademarks, including logo designs and colors.
Although some of the prior art methods are an attempt at forming a long lasting design, if the soap is used for its intended purposes, the designs will deteriorate before the bar of soap is used up. The prior art soaps that include an insert employ an insert having a substantial thickness that supports the bar itself. Several of the prior art designs include a substantial insert for that purpose, i.e. to support the bar until it is used up. However, such supporting inserts, whether plain or bearing a message, create disposal problems and, perhaps even present safety concerns.
The old methods of printing advertisements or trademarks and the like on paper or cardboard and molding the printed paper into the soap suffers from obvious disadvantages. The paper or cardboard medium on which the message or design is printed is detectable through the soap and hence detracts from the aesthetic appeal of the printed message as well as the soap. Furthermore, as the soap bar is used up, the printed paper is exposed to water and the printed message is defaced, becomes unsightly, can leach through the soap and eventually is destroyed. The printed paper presents an obvious disposal or waste problem. Wet paper or cardboard can clog drains and cause other disposal problems.
One attempt to provide a bar of soap bearing a design or printing that remains intact and readable until the bar of soap is used up is a bar soap having an imbedded, printed logo called "To Be", distributed by Dong Won Chemics, South Korea. The "To Be" soap is a dark amber, transparent bar having an embedded, printed message.